Naples: gastronomy

The gastronomy of Campania offers a lot of good food for the gourmands who love the good Mediterranean cooking....

The gastronomy of Campania offers a lot of good food for the gourmands who love the good Mediterranean cooking.
You can start from the numerous kinds of pasta: spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams), zuppa di pesce (fish soup), polpi affogati (octopus with a special sauce), frutti di mare crudi (raw shell-fish), frittura di pesce (fish-fry), mozzarella di bufala, the numerous kinds of pizza (that was born in1500 and then became famous in 1889, thanks to the visit of Queen Margaret in Naples), the taralli (ring-shaped biscuits that can be salty or sweet) and, among the sweets, the babà (soft sweets which are aromatized with a liqueur)
and the sfogliatelle (made with puff pastry).
Then there are some dishes which are taditionally bound to a certain period of the year.
Typical of Christmas time are: the minestra maritata, a soup with vegetables and pork meat, many kinds of sweets, as the cassata (a cake based on ricotta and marzipan), the pasta reale (a special kind of marzipan) the struffoli (fried sweets, served with honey and candied fruits), the raffaioli (made with glacé sponge cake),
the susamielli (sweets based on almonds and candied fruits). Typical of Easter time are the casatiello rustico (a salty ring shaped cake with salami, cheese and eggs).
Among the sweets, the famous pastiera (a cake made with ricotta, chocolate and wheat) and the quaresimali (homemade biscuits).
All this is, of course, accompanied by many kinds of red and white wine, produced above all in the Vesuvius area and in the nearby islands: the Falerno, the Gragnano, the Lacryma Christi, the Aspino, the Solopaca, the Greco di Tufo and the Biancolella.
At the end of your meal, or in any other moment of the day, you cannot miss sipping the famous “tazzulella e’ cafè” (the little cup of coffee), which is object of a special care, in Naples.